WAMU 88.5 Contributors

Matt Bush

Reporter

Bush is the Maryland reporter for WAMU. He can be found most of the time on the job in Annapolis, Rockville, or Upper Marlboro covering state and county governments. He's a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Point Park College in downtown Pittsburgh


Articles Written by Matt Bush

WAMU 88.5
This week new gun laws went into effect in Maryland. Included in the long list of regulations is a ban on 45 assault-style guns. One gun dealer in Howard County believes the ban will not be effective in preventing mass shootings because it ignores some very powerful guns that will be unregulated because they are considered hunting rifles. Jeff Underwood does most of his work...
WAMU 88.5
President Obama visited a construction company in Rockville, Maryland yesterday to highlight the plight of businesses that are losing money because of the partial federal government shutdown. Meanwhile, Maryland's top financial officer says it's those businesses that are worrying him more than the loss of revenue to the state government. Each day of the shutdown, the state o...
WAMU 88.5
A hearing will be held Tuesday to determine whether a portion of Maryland's extensive new gun law will go into effect. The lawsuit filed by several gun owners and gun rights advocates challenges the provision of the law banning certain assault-style rifles and large ammunition clips. The plaintiffs want the judge to prevent those bans from starting Tuesday, saying they infringe on the...
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Today saw the much-awaited debut of Capital BikeShare in Montgomery County. Fourteen bikeshare stations opened today throughout the county. Close to 40 others are still being finished and will open soon. Montgomery County joins D.C., Arlington, and Alexandria in having Capital Bikeshare."This quite frankly makes us a younger community," says Councilman Roger Berlin...
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A shutdown of the federal government would be devastating for the state of Maryland, says Governor Martin O'Malley. The governor appeared with President Obama yesterday at Prince George's Community College in Largo, where they discussed the exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act that are due to go online Tuesday. O'Malley says he's fairly confident Maryland's marketpla...
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With just five days to go before the key part of the defining law of his presidency goes online, President Obama made a short trip to Maryland to urge people to use the health care exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act. Twenty-somethings are the target audience of those health care exchanges, where people will be able to negotiate coverage plans online. The presid...
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The last of the big-name candidates for Maryland governor has officially started his campaign. Voters in the state could be forgiven if they thought attorney general Doug Gansler had already kicked-off his run. Gansler toured Maryland all summer long, holding issue forums and meeting with volunteers. It was at one of those meetings where he made his controversial comment that ...
WAMU 88.5
Today is National Prisoner Of War-Missing In Action Recognition Day. One ceremony marking the day in Maryland was quite unlike any other in the United States. There are plenty of incarcerated veterans that have formed groups in prisons throughout the U.S., but those at the Roxbury Correctional Institution  — a medium-security prison with 1,700 inmates - are able to do s...
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In Maryland, prosecutors in Prince George's County are getting additional money to go after repeat violent offenders. A year ago on Old Central Avenue in Capitol Heights, Central High School student Marckel Ross was shot and killed after an attempted robbery. Several stuffed animal dolls still lie at the base of a pole in memory of Ross. Travon Bennett was eventually arreste...
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Texas governor and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry made two stops in Maryland today in an attempt to get businesses to leave the state and relocate to his. Perry's two stops were closed to the press, first at the Beretta gun factory in Accokeek, and then an address to business owners at a steakhouse in Bethesda. But after the Bethesda event...
WAMU 88.5
The debate over gun control is taking center stage again after yet another mass shooting. One place that is especially true is in Maryland, where one of the strictest gun laws in the country will take effect in less than two weeks. Supporters of Maryland's gun law appear in a radio ad that wi...
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A busy park and ride lot along Route 50 in Anne Arundel County is about to get bigger. The State Highway Administration announced it will add 200 parking spaces at the Davidsonville Park and Ride Lot, which is located right off of Route 50 at the Maryland Route 424 exit. Those additional spaces would bring the number at the lot to 400. "As anyone who is a frequent comm...
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Three victims of the Navy Yard shootings were treated for gunshot wounds at Washington Hospital Center and are expected to survive. Dr. Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer at the hospital, said that all three victims were alert and able to communicate with staff and authorities investigating the shooting when they arrived at Washington Hospital Center. "The ...
WAMU 88.5
The Maryland State Highway Administration announced it will add 200 parking spaces at the Davidsonville Park and Ride Lot, which is located right off of Route 50 at the Maryland Route 424 exit. The additional spaces would bring the number at the lot to 400 says SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar. "As anyone who is a frequent commuter there from Queen Anne's County through the An...
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Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown has already formally started his campaign for governor, and picked a running mate — Howard County Executive Ken Ulman — before any of his Democratic competitors. Brown and Ulman filed their candidacy at the Maryland State Board of Elections in Annapolis Friday afternoon. The Brown-Ulman ticket got a head start on campaigning before their r...
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911 calls in Montgomery County seeking fire and EMS help can get delayed up to 30 seconds because of how they're handled. Officials say it will be at least another three years before the problem can be fixed. When a 911 call is placed in Montgomery County, a police department dispatcher answers the call. If the caller is requesting fire or EMS help, then that call is transferr...
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D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has vetoed a controversial living wage bill in the District, sending it back to the D.C. council, where supporters will try to override the veto. Just this week in neighboring Montgomery County, a similar bill that would raise the minimum wage to $1...
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Twelve years ago, terrorism seemed to be the biggest safety threat to the D.C. region. Now many area emergency management officials think a bigger threat has emerged: natural disasters. Kenneth Mallette is the director of Maryland's Emergency Management Agency. He says the weather that the D.C. region has seen in the past two years in many ways surpasses terrorism as a threat....
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The contractor working on the much-maligned and delayed Silver Spring Transit Center says repairs now being mandated by Montgomery County can not completed until next summer at the earliest. Just minutes before David Dise, the head of Montgomery County's division of general services, was to go before the county council to give the latest update on the center, Foulger-Pratt rel...
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Inspections on water pipes similar to one that burst in March along a busy thoroughfare in Chevy Chase won't be done for almost a year. The time frame is leaving Montgomery County leaders very frustrated. A pipe burst along Connecticut Avenue on March 18 just inside t...